The Hambletonian continues to inspire and amaze
I have always been an avid reader. When I first became enamored with harness racing, I eagerly awaited the Harness Horse, Horseman and Fair World and Hoof Beats, and I read them cover to cover.
Living and working in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, those industry publications were my first exposure to the Hambletonian, which was raced in the far-away mystical cornfields of Illinois. Du Quoin was my “field of dreams” long before baseball made the saying popular. I was in awe of the Haughton, Sholty, Beissinger and Dancer stables and other legendary racing names when they rolled through Liberty Bell and Brandywine during the Grand Circuit.
A few years after I started as a caretaker, I got to travel the Grand Circuit, sleeping in tack rooms and shed rows and seeing the horses race that I had only read about in magazines. I saw Speedy Somolli win in 1978 — and then came the bombshell announcement that the Hambletonian would be moving to New Jersey. I truly felt like crying because the Hambletonian was being annexed by the Meadowlands after developing a unique identity through its first 54 years — from Syracuse and Lexington to Good Time Park and Du Quoin.
Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Du Quoin’s fortunes were waning, and the track had been sold. The Meadowlands, after being open only a few years, was breaking every record in harness racing — handle, attendance, speed, number of stakes races, etc. The management of the Meadowlands raised the profile of the Hambletonian enormously. When the race moved, I was still a groom and going to the Hambletonian when I could, standing on the tarmac and going to post-Hambo shed row parties. I never thought that by the late ‘80s I would be working for the Hambletonian Society.
But I was.
Well, actually for the Breeders Crown, as the Meadowlands ably handled every facet of the big race in partnership with the Hambletonian Society board. One of my duties was to help with TV production, and I spent many a Hambletonian in the TV truck for NBC and CBS. To be even a small part of such a great race was thrilling to me, and working with the Meadowlands people was a graduate course in event management and promotion. The enormous staff and their dedication to putting on the event justified the board’s decision to move the race, and I, along with many others, were firmly convinced it was the right move.
I have worked for the Society since 1987 (when Mack Lobell won the Hambo) and I’m still thrilled by the race. To watch the trotters and to get to enjoy the owners, breeders, trainers, drivers and caretakers as they take the stage on the biggest day in harness racing has been a pleasure. And it is astounding that as racetracks disappear and the sport contracts and simply changes, the Hambletonian is celebrating its 100th race.
Everybody loves a winner, but sometimes I remember the also-rans more.
When CR Kay Suzie made a break on the backside in 1995, the gasp from the crowd was actually deafening. That Carl and Rod Allen took the microphone immediately after the race to explain on national TV what happened to their sensational filly remains to me one of the most honorable displays of sportsmanship I have ever seen.
When the field left the gate in 2003 and I saw from my TV vantage point that one entrant had instead gone straight and was standing still as a statue by the track fence, I was horrified for them to have that experience in the Hambletonian! In front of 20,000 people! Going for a million dollars! And I missed most of the race because I was praying nothing worse would happen and the horse would decide to take a step forward.
Perhaps my favorite edition was 1989. No Valley Victory, Peace Corps not at the top of her form, and the race lost a lot of luster. But Ron Waples and Billy Fahy saved the day with an unprecedented dead-heat finish that made the front page of the New York Times.
My favorite part of working at the Society (beside the caliber of races I get to be involved in) is the luxury of immersing myself in the history and the wonderful human and equine stories that accompany every Hambletonian.
This column appears in the August 2025 issue of Hoof Beats, the official magazine of the USTA. To learn more, or to become a subscriber to harness racing’s premier monthly publication, click here.